Sign of life: how are our crews around the world doing?

Sign of life: how are our crews around the world doing?

In times like these, everyone is trying to manage the situation the best they can. How is the corona pandemic influencing the work of our global network? We spoke to five people from different continents to find out. Read their stories here:

“I wake up, read the news, study Mandarin, cook my lunch, study Mandarin again, doing some computer work, cook dinner. Sometimes I see friends for coffee or dinner. March I almost had no work (I’m a freelancer), February was extremely busy with the news of Coronavirus in China making the headlines worldwide.

There is little to do when shootings get canceled. My suggestion is to not waste this occasion of having time and study something that will make you better in your work.

At first you get sad and angry for the much lower income, but after, you realise there is nothing you can do and everyone is suffering financially. You will learn to accept it and you will start appreciating this new life where money is not a lot (but hopefully enough to pay the bills!) but time is a lot, you will appreciate more staying with your family, watching movies or reading books you had never had time to watch and read.”

“I went for a trip to see some family in Europe just before the coronavirus hit and all the chaos started happening. So, I’m actually stuck in Ireland at the moment, which isn’t so bad because I’m with some family.

The team back home started working from home a couple of weeks ago. We’ve finished the last of our work for the foreseeable future since our video company films a lot of events and restaurants, and those things are closing down at the moment. So, we’re all just hunkering at home at the moment.

I’m hoping between being really busy Netflixing, I’ll have some time to work onthose creative projects and do a little bit of writing.
That’s how I’m going to keep sane and
hope you all do too!”

“A lockdown is inevitable; I think the government is negotiating what to do with low-income people who live hand to mouth in the slums. A lockdown can trigger civil unrest and panic that could be worse than the impact of the coronavirus. I think they are weighing options.

Three days later, the government introduced a 7 pm to 5 am curfew instead of a lockdown. Again, they preferred a clash between the people and the police over civil unrest. The cops used excessive force to keep the country indoors. Police were a good vilain because the majority already hate them.

This virus has me wondering which is higher, human rights or human life?”

“It’s slowed down quite a bit. We went into national lockdown on Friday 27th so things were pretty crazy leading up till then. I was finishing off a couple of edits whilst trying to prepare for our 21 days of isolation. This included food etc but more importantly buying extra 35mm film and music equipment to keep me busy over the next few weeks.

My days have involved a lot of music, both listening and playing/recording. This has become my main escape and it’s been lovely actually. Other than that I have been going through my video and photo archives as I am planning to update my portfolio over this period as well as further developing some personal projects.

Other than that, my flatmate and I have been cooking, bingeing podcasts and talking about exercise.”

“Due to the regulations in the country, I only can leave home to buy food and I carry a special permission as a journalist to be able to film outside. The streets are full of policies and military everywhere in the country.

Now I have to be very careful with everything I touch. For the first story of Coronavirus I covered I had to get inside the area where potential patients with coronavirus get tested. Therefore, I had to wear a long apron, a mask, gloves and a hat to get inside. My gear needs to be covered with a plastic bag as much as I can and disinfect them with alcohol all over them.

I normally spend a lot of time at home looking for stories and characters. However these days all the stories I find are people dealing with a type of limitations due to Coronavirus situations. So even when sometimes I feel scared every time I go out I also
feel that there are a lot of people fighting against this
virus and I really want to show their stories to the world.”